Thoppur: Hitting back at the saffron assault for his ‘Godse, Hindu terrorist’ remark of Sunday night, actor-politician Kamal Haasan insisted he spoke only truth. "It's historic truth", said the Makkal Needhi Maiyam chief addressing a rally here on Wednesday for the Tirupurankundram Assembly by-poll, his first outing in two days since the controversial Godse piece.
"They got angry for what I spoke at Aravakurichi. What I spoke (there) is historic truth. I did not lure anyone to a brawl," he said. He also blamed the media for picking out a provocative and not-too-relevant bit for highlighting from his long oration. What sections of the IPC applied to him in the cases filed on that speech, would also apply to the media persons who had reported inadequately, he warned. "Understand the meaning for the word extremist. I could have used the word terrorist or murderer (against Godse)... ours is pro-active politics, there won't be any violence," he said while resorting to wordplay in Tamil to drive home his point.
Kamal also asked if his critics could show instances of his remarks-including those in his films--that could incite violence and said the accusations against him had hurt him. "They are saying I hurt Hindu sentiments. There are so many Hindus in my family. My daughter is a believer," he said.
"I will not hurt anyone, any religion. But if I state history and they say it hurts, then that wound will not heal merely by attacking me. We must heal that wound and I am here to heal", declared the actor-politician.
Elaborating on inclusivity as the foundation for civilised society, he said, "We should not be content by merely tolerating another religion; we should accept that religion (as an equal)". The minority people, he said, "are my people".
He said in launching MNM and choosing its name to clearly proclaim his party would serve the people of all communities, he cannot now obviously function for just one segment of people-a reference to the saffron charge that he had made that Godse speech in a Muslim area only to win their votes.
He said even in his films, he had only preached peace among all segments of society while opposing divisive tendencies.
